Good chance if I apply now or wait another year?

[swimmingxxx657]

Thanks for your help everyone.

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[massmocha]

That looks pretty solid, I would apply if I had those stats. If you took time off you could boost your app, but if you're in a hurry to start med school, go for it.

 

[Goro]

Apply now and MCAT pending, aim high.

Hi everyone! I'm posting now with a different, more focused question. I'm in a dilemma over whether I should wait another year or apply this cycle. I recently spoke to my school's pre-medical advisor and he said that my clinical experience is lacking. However, I personally feel the clinical experiences I have had involved lots of significant physician/patient interaction that made a meaningful impact on me. Below are my stats, info, and school list...please let me know if you think I have a good chance of getting into medical school if I applied this year. Ideally, I'd like to attend a California school (though I know they're very hard to get into), so one concern for me is not making the "cutoff" for UCs that pre-screen before sending out secondaries. What do you think are my chances? Would you recommend me waiting another year to get more clinical experience?

By the way, if I wait another year, my GPA might slide a little because I am taking quite a heavy course load. It won't be a huge dip, but I thought I should mention this because I heard some UCs value grades a lot.

Any help is much appreciated!

CA resident
Double major: Biochemistry and Math
cGPA: 3.98
sGPA: 4.00
MCAT Percentiles (took it only once, and took the new one):
Chem/Physics: 85-100
CARS: 85-100
Biological/Biochemical: 85-100
Psych/Socio: 85-100
Overall: 90-100

Clinical Activities
-1 year of clinical research in a major hospital (~120 hours), which involved lots of patient interaction and physician observation
-Summer shadowing at a private clinic (~20 hours)

Research Experience
-1 year of clinical research (~120 hours)
-1 year in lab (~100 hours)
-poster presentation at school wide research conference

Leadership Experience
-created and implemented two volunteering programs
-served on board of a community service club for one year (still hold position)

Community Service (non medical volunteering)
-1 year volunteering at elementary school
-6 months volunteering with low-income families

Additional Activities
-1 year of diving lessons

Awards
-dean's list, Phi Beta Kappa, school scholarship award

Tentative School List:

Loma Linda
UCLA
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UC Riverside
UC San Diego
UCSF
USC Keck
Stanford
Temple
Jefferson
Oregon
Baylor
Drexel
U of Chicago Pritzker
Northwestern
Rochester
Einstein
SUNY Stony Brook
NY Medical College
Emory
U of Pittsburgh
Dartmouth
Cornell
Tufts
BU

 

[Crabbycake]

Aim high my friend, aim high!

 

[swimmingxxx657]

Thanks all. When you say aim high, what are schools that you would recommend me applying to?

 

[el_duderino]

Waiting to apply would be a total waste of a year of your life.

 

[Crabbycake]

There was an excel spreadsheet somewhere, where you could input your grades/MCAT/extracurriculars and kinda estimate what schools you should apply to. I can run some numbers for you.

According to the Excel spreadsheet, you should send 30% of your applications to really high-end schools (Harvard, Yale, JH, Stanford, etc.), 30% to high-end schools (UCLA, NYU, Mayo, etc.), 25% to mid-level schools (Dartmouth, Wake Forest, etc.) and the remainder to safety schools. You shouldn't really have to apply to any DO schools.

 

[swimmingxxx657]

Thank you!